Covid-19 roundup: Trump changes tune with plan to lift re­stric­tions; FDA in­di­cates its non-coro­n­avirus pace may take a hit

Days af­ter Pres­i­dent Trump as­sert­ed that he “calls the shots” on the re­open­ing of the econ­o­my, the fed­er­al gov­ern­ment on Thurs­day pro­posed a three-phase plan to lift re­stric­tions across the coun­try, leav­ing the nuts and bolts of the move to the dis­cre­tion of gov­er­nors and state of­fi­cials.

The first phase large­ly cov­ers ex­ist­ing cur­rent lock­down mea­sures such as avoid­ing non-es­sen­tial trav­el and group gath­er­ings — how­ev­er, venues such as restau­rants, places of wor­ship and sports venues “can op­er­ate un­der strict phys­i­cal dis­tanc­ing pro­to­cols.” If a resur­gence in coro­n­avirus trans­mis­sion is not de­tect­ed, phase two sanc­tions non-es­sen­tial trav­el — and al­lows schools to re­open and bars to op­er­ate “with di­min­ished stand­ing-room oc­cu­pan­cy.”

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